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South by Southwest, Austin, Texas - the Sunday Times review

Live and kicking

If queues aren't your thing, then Austin, Texas, was not the place to be last weekend. The most common complaint about the city's annual South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival is that you can make all the plans you like, but just try getting in to see one of the bands on your list.

The queues seemed longer than ever - a situation you expect at the evening shows, but not one that is welcome during the day, which, in past years, was the spontaneous counterweight to the endless fractious lines snaking round corners come dusk.

Yet complaining about a five-day music event held in March, in average temperatures of 27C, in a city noted for its easy-going inhabitants and good-time vibe, seems churlish, if not perverse. To survive the experience - and it's hardly an ordeal, despite what many bloggers would have you believe - requires calm acceptance that you'll miss as